How far, and in what ways, do you agree that sound creates more meaning than space? Essay

Submitted By chloebag1
Words: 957
Pages: 4
Open Document
How far, and in what ways, do you agree that sound creates more meaning than space?

In the texts I have studied, space tends to be a more dominant feature than sound due to the emphasis of setting. Interiority and exteriority are common tools used to express setting and characters within a scene; generally, negativity develops when a manmade quality is present.

In ‘Hey Nostradamus’, when Cheryl and Jason fly to Las Vegas to get married, there is an innocent quality to Cheryl when ‘our outfits must have made us look all of fifteen’. This suggests that Cheryl was of too young an age to get married, which is reinforced by their ‘fake ID’, and conveys a manmade quality to their relationship; as Jason states ‘I was seventeen and starved for sex’. Coupland portrays Cheryl’s sense of innocence further with her ‘first experience to genuine heat’ and how ‘my lungs had never felt so pure’, as she is a virgin at this point and the sibilance conveys a sensual quality. The saint-like motif here is ironic because no sooner has she married Jason, she falls pregnant; this, again, induces a manmade quality to their relationship and a negative slant on Cheryl, which could foreshadow Cheryl’s death in the eyes of God, in terms of religion. Coupland questions the setting of the Bible through Cheryl’s innocence, whereby she ‘wondered how the Bible ever managed to happen. They must have had different weather back then’. The natural and manmade are contrasted here, with the weather and Bible, and there is a sense that Cheryl is justifying religion, as Coupland expresses his greatest fear of ‘God being real and not caring much for humans’. Sound can reinforce this idea, however, in ‘good Lord, the desert is harsh’, as the sibilance here creates a negative use of exterior setting, despite being a natural element; this could reinforce the idea that Cheryl has not experienced life and so even the natural elements are turning against her.

In Eliot’s ‘The Hollow Men’, the manmade quality of war is negatively portrayed through the motif of a scarecrow, and can be applied to World War One and modern warfare. The idea that ‘we are the hollow men/ We are the stuffed men’ suggests an industrial or mechanical process in which something is filled manually; the imagery here has negative connotations as they have ‘shape without form, shade without colour, paralysed force, gesture without motion’ which conveys a lack of self-worth and sense of innocence. We feel pathos for the character as the oxymoron suggests that the ‘men’ are not sure of who they are and we feel a sense of loss of identity. Nature is personified when ‘the wind’s singing’, perhaps, as the government as the ‘men’ are ‘behaving as the wind behaves’ as if they are being given orders; this mechanical and manmade process is communicated by a ‘headpiece filled with straw’ which conveys a lack of sound and emphasis on the space and setting, despite the sibilance that enhances the negativity. Additionally, Eliot substitutes the traditional mulberry bush and England for a ‘prickly pear’ in ‘cactus land’; the imagery conveys a hot, dry climate and is suggestive of a damaged generation with the use of a nursery rhyme and reverting back to childhood induces an innocent quality. Furthermore, the fact that ‘the eyes are not here’ conveys a lack of emotion and creates the image of ‘the hollow men’, perhaps suggesting that even though the government are not present, they still cannot talk about the going’s on with their unnatural, metaphorical ‘broken jaw’, prohibiting sound.

In Harris’ ‘Enigma’, sound and space are used to communicate the living conditions of most
Show More

Related Documents: How far, and in what ways, do you agree that sound creates more meaning than space? Essay

Personal Philosophy Of Communication

public setting that spoke and communicated exclusively in a language other than English. Having not learned more than a few words of Spanish, I was unable understand the world around me. I could not read signs, understand people, and I didn’t know the cultural differences between the society I had grown accustomed to and this new strange world. At the age of nine, I learned the importance of language. I knew the only way I could live in this new place was to learn the dialect. Luckily, I was fortunate…

Words 5592 - Pages 23

Gallagher 2011 Essay

including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rscg20 Sound, space and power in a primary school Michael Gallagher a a Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh, 23 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9LN, UK Version of record first published: 02 Feb 2011. To cite this article: Michael Gallagher (2011): Sound, space and power in a primary school, Social & Cultural Geography, 12:01, 47-61 To link to this article: http://dx…

Words 7375 - Pages 30

Interior Design vs Architecture Essay

properly fulfilled unless the design professional's motives, conduct, sense of moral values and ability command respect, confidence and professionalism. For instance, after the Architect or Interior Designer meets a prospective client and talks about what services can be delivered, the client may inadvertently ask for some free preliminary sketches to help make the decision. Most of the time, these kinds of requests are made quite innocently, with the client not realising the work put into a design…

Words 7330 - Pages 30

Voting System and Female Student Essay

Reading Section Directions: These sample questions in the Reading section measure your ability to understand academic passages in English. You will read one passage and answer questions about it. In a real test, you would have 20 minutes to read the passage and answer the questions. Candidates with disabilities may request a time extension. Meteorite Impact and Dinosaur Extinction There is increasing evidence that the impacts of meteorites have had important effects on Earth, particularly…

Words 9028 - Pages 37

God S Not Dead Arguments Essay

earth revealing that the debate has a much more compelling and simple core truth—scriptural authority. Read online | Buy the book In a previous review of the movie God’s Not Dead, I claimed that the film used the big bang and biological evolution to support the existence of God. As a film that is explicitly Christian, this is problematic. As a result of the first review, many AiG supporters raised concerns about the critical nature of the article. I do not offer this second article as a defense of…

Words 6699 - Pages 27

Critical Thinking Essay in Comparative Business Ethics

1. When asked the vast majority of people will agree with the following two statements. Would you agree with them also? a. I have solid, well-considered ethical beliefs that can be altered only by reasoned arguments or new evidence. b. I have character and integrity that will carry me though when I face difficult moral choices. I believe that I do have solid and well considered ethical beliefs that can be altered only by reasoned arguments and the emergence of new evidence. I also believe that…

Words 5096 - Pages 21

Organizational Behavior Research Paper

Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts Organizational behavior In today’s challenges at work and an organization has become more than just a place where eight hours of a day is spent, but a place where behavior is a major contribution to the success behavior and what it means and the effects on the climate of an organization. of a company. In this paper we will discuss organizational “Organizational behavior is the study of human behavior in organizations. It is an academic discipline…

Words 4866 - Pages 20

Essay On The Time Machine

When you think of the 800,000 years into the future, do you think of a utopia, or a society with worse conditions of living from the time period, which you came? Would you expect it to be less advanced, with people living like animals? This twisted question is answered in The Time Machine as the Time Traveller ventures into the future and is faced with something very different than what he had expected. He is shocked as he exits his futuristic machine and he is stuck with awe as he gazes on the future…

Words 2578 - Pages 11

The Science Fiction Museum And Hall Of Fame

[EIGHT] WHAT INSPIRES THEM: SCIENCE FICTION’S IMPACT ON SCIENCE REALITY You can never tell when you make up something what will happen with it. You never know whether or not it will come true. —DONNA SHIRLEY The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame appropriately stands in the shadow of Seattle’s futuristic landmark, the Space Needle. Set in a multicolored, globular Frank Gehry-designed building that looks like a cut-up guitar (a “ridiculous . . . monstrosity of postmodern architecture” is…

Words 8778 - Pages 36

The Epithet in the Novel "Jane Eyre" Essay example

Each of us at least ones created an image. We use different means (stylistic expressive means and devices) to achieve the aim. In our research we would like to concentrate our attention on “epithet”, a figure of speech which gives the opportunity to create the most expressive and vivid images. Despite the fact that there are many works devoted to the problem…

Words 18865 - Pages 76